Three weeks ago, I stood in the baby aisle of my neighborhood grocery store analyzing all of the options there are today for baby food. It appeared like so much had changed since my last little one was born. Where did all these options come from? What happened to just regular Gerber baby food? And who thought up some of these awful food combinations – ham in ham gravy? Chicken, peas and zucchini? The color alone made me feel bad for the poor kiddos that were being fed those awful combinations. Then the price of the caught my eye – they wanted me to spend HOW much on ONE jar of baby food? Combine that with some of the preservatives and GMO ingredients that go into said pre-packaged baby foods… Needless to say I left empty handed and ran home to tell my husband of my adventure. I sat there, staring at my Ninja that I had received as a Christmas gift and realized, it would be just as easy to make baby food at home and probably a lot cheaper. I had seen multiple friends posting on Facebook their baby food making ventures and it sure did look easy. I also quickly added up in my head the cost of the handful of vegetables they bought in order to make those items and immediately thought they were on to something. I feel fortunate in the sense that my in-laws have their own garden out on their acreage and canned a lot of what they grow – and they so generously pass it on to their children. I had some jars of vegetables in my house thanks to them and decided to grab those, along with some additional items, and get to work.

Start with whatever kind of vegetable or fruit you want, it can be fresh or frozen. I generally try to make a weeks’ worth of servings. There’s also a variety of ways to store the food – there are some affordable plastic baby food containers on amazon, but glass is the preferable method. You can also use Mason jars and scoop out individual servings as you go. You can also pour it into ice cube trays and freeze for them an hour then pop into a glass bowl, throw on a lid and put in the freezer. You would then pull out only what you need each day. The fruit creations are super simple, you throw your produce, preferably organic (if not then wash them REALLY WELL), in the blender, hit start until pureed and you’re done. For veggies there’s a lot of dicing, cooking, and then blending. But your little ones get much more nutrient dense food that way, so make sure to mix it up.

I chop up my veggies and tend to steam most of them, then I put them in my Ninja with a little water and turn it on.

If you are crunched for time, you can always do it once a week or even once a month and then store it in the freezer. A few times a week, I toss whatever vegetables the rest of us are having for dinner into the blender so my little one can eat the same foods we are.

Karly is a true southern girl through and through. Wife and mama to two sweet boys, she is also a professional event planner and publicist and has traveled with her littles more times than she can count. The sweet tea, loving Granola Mommy is a first time blogger on Nosh & Nurture and plans to continue writing on topics on various platforms to help mama's make healthy choices for their children.

My girls are grown now, and when they were babies I never even thought of making their food. But in this day and age I think it is a really good idea to make your own baby food. That way you know exactly what's going in it.

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Karly

7/14/2015 01:22:21 pm

That is one of the main reasons I did it - so I knew WHAT was in my sons food :)

I tried to make home made baby food but I just don't have the time. I am currently love with everything made by Beechnut. My daughter LOVES there food. Way better than the gelatinous version made by Gerber. Even my husband, who just admitted to me as I am writing this, that he has tried them and liked them a lot. Even to share with our labs!

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Nosh & Nurture was born of this journey I am on to better the health of myself, my family and those around me. What started as a simple compilation of recipes has grown to a all-around lifestyle journal with ways to incorporate organic products into your home, pantry and beauty cabinet. I also include stories on pregnancy, new motherhood, travel, Proverbs 31 marriage, and spiritual health, as I am a Christian who couldn't do any of this without my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. For more of my story you can click here.

All recipes are gluten-free and dairy-free with a lot of soy-free, grain-free, sugar-free options.

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